The permanently troubled Spider-Man musical took a couple of steps in the right direction towards being able to open yesterday; not only did the show get a new lead producer, but an actor was finally announced to play Peter Parker.

With a budget estimated to be somewhere in the region of $50 million already, and a weekly running cost that may be in the budget of $1 million a week, Julie Taymor's musical version of Marvel's superhero may be too expensive to be allowed to fail. That might explain the addition of Michael Cohl as new lead producer. Cohl, a music industry veteran and former chairman of Live Nation, brings with him experience with ridiculous demands for stage sets and dealing with budgets out of control. Although it likely had nothing to do with him, the announcement on the same day that the show has found its Peter Parker in Reeve Carney, who has previously worked with Taymor on her movie version of The Tempest, does at least give the impression of the show slowly coming together.

Sadly, it's looking increasingly unlikely to come together quickly enough to make the projected February 2010 opening date; rumors are now that people should expect a midyear premiere.